How does "The Nutracker and the Mouse King," the 1816 story that sparked a much-loved holiday tradition, differ from Disney's latest movie incarnation? Read on!
A Prussian writer of fantasy and gothic horror, left the world a wonderful holiday gift. His 1816 short story "" has inspired dozens of adaptations. (It's his best known work, though several operas and ballets have been based on his other writing as well.) The most famous adaptation is, of course, the ballet. Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker is actually based on a retelling of the story by , though Dumas's version is nearly identical to Hoffmann's original.
It's not difficult to understand why this one short story by a German Romantic author is still so beloved over generations later. "The Nutcracker" is a story full of whimsy and magic, by turns eerie and heartwarming. In the more than 200 years since its birth, the story has come alive again and again in countless ways: in ballets performed all over the world, in animated TV series and cartoons, in radio broadcasts, and in live-action movies. is an audio production that pairs the original story with music from the ballet, and it is only one of many Nutcracker books available to enchant kids. Sometimes, a piece of fiction takes on a life of its own, and that is certainly the case with "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King." It's unlikely that E.T.A. Hoffmann, who died 70 years before Tchaikovsky's ballet made his story famous, had even an inkling of how influential his writing would become.
Disney's latest adaptation of the original, the movie , came out in 2018. Like many previous adaptations and retelling of the story, it stays true to the original in some places and deviates in others. But just how different is The Nutcracker and the Four Realms from "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King"? Where do the two stories diverge in plot, character, and theme, and where are they the same? Let's dig into the details.
Plot
What happens in ""?
Set in Germany, "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" opens on Christmas Eve. Seven-year-old Marie and her siblings Fritz and Louise have just received their Christmas gifts from their godfather, a clockmaker and inventor named Drosselmeyer. Soon bored by her new toy castle, Marie notices a nutcracker and asks about him. Her father tells her that he can be her own special toy. She and Fritz begin cracking nuts with him, and soon he breaks. Distraught, Marie bandages up the nutcracker and asks to be allowed to sit with him a little longer, though it is past her bedtime. Her father agrees.
Once everyone else is asleep, Marie watches the house come alive. The grandfather clock chimes and armies of mice pour out of the walls, led by the seven-headed Mouse King. The nutcracker immediately jumps into action, leading all the dolls into battle against the mice. When Marie wakes up the next morning, no one believes her story about what happened.
The next day, Drosselmeyer tells her the story of Princess Pirlipat and the Mouse Queen. Princess Pirlipat, the daughter of the King, is cursed by the Mouse Queen to look like a nutcracker, with a wide smiling mouth and a big beard. Furious, the king sends his court inventor Drosselmeyer on a quest to find a cure, promising that the man who breaks the curse can have his daughter's hand in marriage. Drosselmeyer returns with a special nut and with his nephew, the only man with the ability to crack it. As soon as Pirlipat eats the nut, she becomes human again. Sadly, Drosselmeyer's nephew encounters the Mouse Queen on his way out of the palace and becomes cursed himself. Pirlipat refuses to marry him.
The night after she hears this story, Marie travels to the doll kingdom with the nutcracker, who shows her many magical and wonderful sights. Back at home, she declares that she would never abandon him like Pirlipat did and she would always love him, whether he was human or not. Just then, Marie's mother announces that Drosselmeyer's nephew has arrived. He tells Marie that when she said she'd love him no matter what, it broke the curse and made him human again. They agree to marry and live together in the doll kingdom as king and queen.
What happens in The Nutcracker and the Four Realms?
The Nutcracker and the Four Realms also begins on Christmas Eve, and follows the adventures of a young girl named Clara who travels with the nutcracker into a land of living toys known as the Four Realms. But beyond these basics, the plot of the move is significantly different from the original story.
The movie is set in Victorian London. On Christmas Eve, Clara and her siblings receive gifts that their mother prepared for them before she died. Clara receives a special egg-shaped box, made by her godfather, Drosselmeyer. The egg has no key, and Clara struggles to figure out how to open it. Frustrated and fighting with her father, she wanders away from her family's Christmas party and finds herself in a magical land. There she meets a nutcracker named Captain Philip Hoffman, who explains that the kingdom is called the Four Realms and was created by Clara's mother, Marie. The kingdoms that make up the four realms are currently at war. The Sugar Plum Fairy wants to claim the Four Realms for herself, and she has a deadly weapon with the power to turn the people of the kingdom back into toys.
After a series of adventures, Clara and the nutcracker finally find the key that will open Clara's egg. Inside, she finds a music box that contains a hidden mirror, reminding Clara that the only power she truly needs is the power that lives inside her. It gives her the courage to finally confront the Sugar Plum Fairy. She cleverly manages to use the Sugar Plum Fairy's weapon against her, turning her back into a harmless doll.
At the border of the Four Realms, Clara says goodbye to the nutcracker, promising to visit again soon. When she returns to London, almost no time has passed. She rejoins her family's Christmas party and makes up with her father.
What are the major differences between The Nutcracker and the Four Realms and the story on which it was based?
It's clear that The Nutcracker and the Four Realms is quite different from the original story. Here are the biggest differences in the two plots:
• The magical settings in the two stories are quite different. In the original story, Marie travels to the doll kingdom, a magical realm populated by mice, nutcrackers, dolls, and other animated toys. The Disney movie reimagines the doll kingdom as the Four Realms: the Land of Sweets, the Land of Flowers, the Land of Snowflakes, and the Land of Amusements, also known as the Fourth Realm.
• In the Disney movie, most of the plot takes place in the Four Realms. Clara travels to the Four Realms with the nutcracker and has many adventures before returning to London to discover that hardly any time has passed. In the original story, Marie spends hardly any time in the doll kingdom. The nutcracker comes alive and talks to her in her home, where much of the action takes place.
• "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King"is a story within a story. A large chunk of the plot consists of Drosselmeyer telling Marie the story of the Mouse King. The nutcracker, whom Marie befriends, is actually a character from the story. In the Disney movie, there is no story within a story.
• The Sugar Plum Fairy is a major character in the Disney movie; she's the villain trying to take over the Four Realms. There is no Sugar Plum Fairy in the original story.
• In the Disney version, Clara's mother, Marie, was the Queen of the Four Realms, making Clara the princess. In "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King," Marie has no prior connection to the doll kingdom.
• The original story ends with a marriage: Marie falls in love with the nutcracker, revealed to be Drosselmeyer's nephew, and they live together in the doll kingdom. In the Disney version, Clara and the nutcracker are just friends. At the end of her adventures, she promises to visit him in the Four Realms, but returns to London and makes up with her father.
Characters
Clara
In the original story, the main character's name is Marie. In the Disney version (as in the ballet and most other retellings), her name is Clara, and her mother is Marie. In both the Disney movie and the original story, Clara is a seven-year old with two siblings, Fritz and Louise. Her personality, too, is similar in both versions. She is inquisitive and imaginative, and expresses both wonder and excitement when she learns that a magical world of talking toys exists. Her role in the Disney movie is a bit more active, as she helps the residents of the Four Realms defeat the evil Sugar Plum Fairy. In the original story, her feelings and words have the biggest impact—when she tells the nutcracker she'll love him no matter what, he becomes human again.
The Nutcracker
In the Disney film, the nutcracker is known as Captain Philip Hoffman. He leads Clara into the Four Realms and has adventures with her there, but his backstory isn't the same as it is in the original story. He isn't a prince who was cursed and transformed into a nutcracker; he's simply one of the many residents of this magical kingdom. He helps and advises Clara during the time she spends in the Four Realms, but they don't end up married. He was never a human like the nutcracker in the original story, who, it turns out, is actually Drosselmeyer's nephew.
Drosselmeyer
In both versions, Drosselmeyer is Clara's godfather. In the Disney movie, he's an engineer; in the original story, he's an inventor and clockmaker. However, he plays a much bigger role in "TheNutcracker and the Mouse King." He's the one who tells Marie the story of the Mouse King in the first place, and he seems to exist both in the real world, as her godfather, and in the doll kingdom, as the court inventor. In the Disney movie, Drosselmeyer is the original maker of the strange egg-shaped box that Clara receives for Christmas; it turns out he made it for Clara's mother before she died. He doesn't join Clara in the Four Realms at any point.
Sugar Plum Fairy
The Sugar Plum Fairy doesn't appear at all in Hoffmann's original story. She does feature prominently in The Nutcracker ballet, but her character was a later addition to the story. In The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, the Sugar Plum Fairy is the main villain, who tries to trick Clara into helping her take control of the Four Realms. At the end of the movie, Clara uses the Sugar Plum Fairy's own weapon to turn her back into a harmless toy.
The Mouse King
The Mouse King appears in both the original story and the Disney movie, but he plays a bigger role in the original. It's because of the Mouse King that the nutcracker was turned into a nutcracker in the first place. Near the end of the story, the nutcracker finally kills the Mouse King and brings his seven crowns to Marie. In The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, the Mouse King plays a much more minor role as the King of the Fourth Realm.
Major Differences: Setting and Theme
Time Period & Setting
The original story takes place somewhere in Germany. The only specific place name mentioned is Nuremberg, which is where Drosselmeyer's nephew lives. Though it's not clear exactly when Hoffmann's original story takes place, it was written in 1816 and was likely contemporary to that time. The Nutcracker and the Four Realms is set in Victorian London.
Theme and Tone
Both the Disney movie and the original story are eerie and strange at times, but they also both share overall themes of love and redemption. The original story is fable-like, with a structure similar to classic fairy tales, complete with a curse, a quest, and a marriage. The Disney movie is a bit more adventurous and unusual. The Disney movie begins with Clara fighting with her father and ends with their reconciliation, while the original story focuses more on Marie's personal journey rather than her relationship with her family. Both versions, however, blend whimsy and fun with just a little bit of danger—a combination that has been delighting audiences for generations.
